Visit from Grandma

"Grandma is coming to town!!!!"

Yep, my mom is coming to visit us for a couple of weeks this Wednesday. I am trying to think of fun Denver things we can do that we haven't already shown her...  I wonder, is 8 mo. too young for Perrin to get any kick out of the Children's Museum...  To be honest, I just really want to go there myself.  There are always fun things to play with and see; now we have the excuse.  "It's my baby--she has been bugging me and bugging me to go see the Children's Museum." 



Joseph recently took Perrin and I on a tour of his med school campus and to see Children's Hospital.  Most buildings on the campus are really new.  The University of Colorado teaching hospital and Children's Hospital are both on campus and were built in 2007. However the 500 building, at the heart of campus, was built in 1941 and used to be an old army hospital.  At the time it was the largest structure in Colorado.  President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack while visiting Denver in 1955, and was treated in the 500 building, then called Fitzsimons Army Hospital.  He was there recovering for seven weeks.  Now you can go and tour the Eisenhower Suite, which has been restored to just how it looked in 1955.  

Children's Hospital is awesome.  You walk in the lobby, and it looks like a really fun place to be, not a place to fear.  They had children's crafts going on in the lobby, they had a teen lounge, and tons of natural light, especially in the areas were the patients actually stay.  They seem to really want to make it a place where children and their families feel comfortable and not intimidated by that hospital feeling.  There is this great ball machine in the lobby that I could watch for hours--loops, springs, bells, the works.  Sure they probably practice really great medicine there--but the ball machine...I'm tellin' ya...

Thrift store shopping for Perrin the other day turned up a little baby scrub top!  He he he he.  I couldn't resist.  So here is a photo of Perrin Clere-Callis MD.  I want to get a pic of her in it wearing a stethoscope with the end of it in her hand--hilarious.  

Oh! We had sort of a major step with Perrin on Saturday.  She was playing on the floor while Joseph and I anchored her wardrobe to the wall.  We look over and she is on all fours rocking forward and back!  We were so excited--as though she was going to take off like a drag racer all of the sudden.

I am excited for her to crawl, but also thinking how much more vigilant we are going to have to be...  There are all sorts of random things laying on the floor or just a foot up.  I now see everything in terms of the size of a baby throat.  I look around and realize we are swimming in hazards!!  How does anyone live to adulthood!?  So...thank you mom and dad for all the work you did keeping me alive back in the 80's.  Good job--I had no idea.

                                           Zen moment with Perrin.
                                          "Giraffes taste like meat." 

Amazing news!!

Last week we got the news we had been waiting and hoping for...Joseph got into Anschutz Medical school here in Denver!!!!!  This is thrilling for lots of reason, but mainly- we are going to med school at our top choice school, it is in the top 10 for pediatrics, which Joseph is interested in, and we get to stay in our lovely little home.  We are feeling so lucky right now, but I know it was not just luck.  Joseph worked so hard- getting up the will to go back to school, starting back at our local community college, working full-time and going to school full-time.  He earned this opportunity for sure.  I am really proud of him.  

 Now after all that work, he gets to do many more years of work!  But at least he knows now what the outcome will be, instead of just having the hope to drive him.  

Training to do something you are passionate about--that is it.  Of course he will have the double challenge of being a father & husband on top of school...  We have already been connected with a second year student with a family to give us information about what that experience is like, as well as practical things like insurance and childcare.  This guy wrote us back a full page email with lots of useful information--that ultimately is pretty discouraging.  He said that everyone he knew on campus with children had a spouse that worked.  This is because there is a federal limit on loans; so it sounds like my time as a stay-at-home parent is going to come to an end this summer.  I guess I have known that this would be necessary, but was sort of in denial about it.  Come August, it will truly be all three of us getting used to a new phase of life. 

Why are my parents so tired?  Today is great!

A couple of nights ago we lowered the level of Perrin's crib since she will be able to start pulling up on it soon.  Weeeeell, evidently that was a very upsetting thing for her.  She woke up at 2:30am very upset, then wouldn't go back down to sleep.  The following day she wouldn't nap, just laid in her crib complaining for the duration of both nap times.  Wow.  We were just beat and cranky most of the day.  But, the day was saved by...the installation of our new microwave!  Our old one had the decency to die the week we got our tax return money.  We actually installed it after Perrin went to bed; we were using the drill, making all sorts of noise but thankfully P decided she had come to terms with the level of her bed and slept right through it till 5:30 this morning.  Being moderately well rested and with the ability to reheat my coffee with the touch of one button, the day is a bit rosier today.

Cloth diapering and stubbornnes, related...not necessarily.

Since about 2 months old we have been cloth diapering Perrin. We decided to do it before she was born for a couple of reasons. First, because it saves a lot of money over time, and second, for environmental reasons. When I was pregnant it would come up in conversation with people that we were going to cloth diaper. Almost always, they would give me this sweet pitying look that said, they knew just how that was going to go down.  Then they would go one to tell you of someone they knew who tried cloth diapers for awhile, only to give up--just as I would.

It turns out that we are still using cloth, and it really isn't that hard. Of course, I am not working outside the home, so that does play a role in giving me the time to wash diapers every other day and then stuff them with the inserts at night.  At first I thought I might continue with cloth even if it was a pain out of sheer stubbornness, just because everyone seemed to think I would quit.  I have been pleased to realize that I am not doing it out of stubbornness; I kind of like it. Washing and stuffing the liners back in the clean multicolored shells feels like this comforting ritual; you know, because women are just naturally passionate about cleaning, like in those commercials where it looks like the women wants to make love to her disinfecting counter-top cleanser.  Aaaanyway, the point is, it just isn't as hard or time consuming as you might think.  

Here is a quick little run down of cloth diapering in case you are curious how it works or might want to try it on the tiny butt in your family.  

- First you have to choose which ones you want...this is the hardest part.  There are more brands out there than you can imagine unless you have already waded into that world in the last handful of years.  I did tons of research, but sort of ultimately picked the same ones my brother and sister-in-law were going to use for their daughter who is very close in age to ours.  ...tired of diaper research, they are smart people, lets follow suit...  We are using Bum Genius 4.0, which seems to have been a good choice.  Thank you Jodi and Dan!

  
These close with hook and loop (like Velcro) and have a pocket that an absorbent insert goes into.  Also, the size is adjustable, so you don't have to keep buying new ones as your baby grows, which is good because they cost about $18 for each shell (comes with 2 inserts, one small, one larger). 

Generally cloth diapers need to be changed every two hours during the day, ...then it just depends one how often you plan on washing them in order to decide how many to buy...starting with a supply around 20 worked for us. 

-  I have 1 diaper pail for cloth and one lidded trash bin for used wipes and the occasional disposable diaper.  Plus a small plastic bin on top the table to toss the dirty diaper in until I can spray it off in the toilet or just pull out the liner and shove both parts in the diaper pail.

- I wash diapers every other day.  You have to use cloth diaper safe detergent (as well as diaper rash creams); what makes them safe is that they don't have ingredients that cause the diaper to start repelling urine, mostly animal derived substances, and they rinse completely out without leaving residue that can irritate the baby's bottom.

- You want to use a hot wash cycle to sanitize, and running an extra rinse cycle is a good idea to make sure all the detergent is rinsed out really well.  Then the diaper shells need to air dry, but the inserts can be put in the dryer.

There isn't much else to it.  They have come a long way since the white squares of cloth with pins in the sides that our grandmas remember. 

ZEN MOMENT WITH PERRIN..."Oooooo, tassels."

Wow, it is still here.

I can't believe that my blog from years ago is still here.  Who is going to take it down, I guess.  I started it when Joseph and I were living in Clarksville, IN before moving to CO.  So now I am thinking this space could be a good spot to share with family and friends what is happening in the life of Perrin and our family in general, as we start taking steps toward Joseph's first year of med school...and a place for an adult conversation starved mom to blow off some steam.

Walking by the Platte River

As of right now, Perrin is in her crib for a nap, but seems to be trying to tell me, "No thank you, I don't need a nap just now.  But thank you so much for offering."  Joseph just flew back to IN this morning to attend his Grandmother's funeral.  Elizabeth was 97 years old.  Perrin and I are staying in CO holding down the fort till Saturday.

Our Clere-Callis family news right now is that Joseph got accepted to medical school!!  His acceptance is from the school in Lexington, KY.  We have not heard from Anschutz Med School here in Denver yet.  We would really like to stay here, because we love our home, but also because it is a very good school.  They have this amazing display at the children's hospital on campus--it is the hospital in its entirety, made out of legos.  I think this is what really sold Joseph on the school; no, I'm serious.

Our other, equally notable, news is that Perrin rode in a shopping cart for the first time yesterday.  Ok, it's no going to med school, but it was pretty darn cute to see.  It made her look so tiny, but yet so grown up at the same time.  She sits pretty well these days, but still keels over eventually when she reaches too far to grab something.  But in the cart she did really well and enjoyed her new view and occupation as random stranger shopper charmer.

We just got about 5 inches of snow over night, and this morning.  It is so beautiful outside.  Perrin loves to be out in the falling snow.  She just looks up and around and smiles and giggles little baby giggles.  Well, something new is always going on with little P and writing is feeling really good, so check back with us often; I plan to update regularly. 

Knitting my first sweater!

The news in my world? I have decided to graduate from knitting socks to sweaters! So I have picked out the pattern from the book Stitch 'N Bitch. The pattern is called "Big Sack." The idea is that it is a big bulky sweater, so I figure I will have a little breathing room in the size and I won't end up knitting it too tightly and ending up with a chunky knit belly shirt. Not flattering. I got some 100% wool yarn from a local yarn shop called A Knitted Peace. So the goal is to turn THIS into... THIS.

I like the washing instructions on the yarn. Evidently it can only be washed in 30 degree C water with one hand, not while climbing a mountain, and there is no third rule. Alright, that makes sense. Wish me luck!